0 From the Vaults – Modern Life – Japan – 2011

The life on the road is full of coincidences. This one still blows my mind. 2007 and I am touring New Zealand for the 2nd time. I get booked to play the 121 Cafe in Auckland and spend the day hanging out with the awesome barman Shinya. We get on well drinking coffee and talking music and travel. Cut to 2010 and I am playing a club in Chiba, Japan. I’m chatting to this cool guy after the show who speaks great English and plays the Sitar. He mentions living in New Zealand and at the same time we realise the reality.

One year later and I am playing the same club and Shinya and I share the stage together for the 1st time. What a wonderful experience it was. We jam out an improvisation and then I segway into my (at the time) unreleased song ‘Modern Life’. Shinya skilfully follows along like a boss 🙂

0 From the Vaults: Been Smoking Too Long (2006)

Probably the oldest video of me performing solo on You Tube dating back over 15 years this is from a one my shows prior to the release of my 1st album.

Weirdly my route through this song led to me discovering the work of Nick Drake who covered the track. My take on this song is a lot closer to the version I first heard of it which was by ‘Placebo’. However one of the first recordings to come out was that of Nick Drake and eventually it came to light that the 1st recording was by his friend Robin Frederick.

Anyway cut to March 2006 and I am playing the sun out in a South London Club which is recorded and ends up on youtube. I was reminded of this song when a friend recently asked if I still played it.